Oct. 12, 2012
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The logo for the NASCAR Hall of Fame exhibit. / NASCAR Hall of Fame

by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

by Nate Ryan, USA TODAY Sports

CHARLOTTE - A day after Dale Earnhardt Jr. revealed a concussion sustained in a 25-car crash at Talladega Superspeedway would sideline him for at least two Sprint Cup races, the NASCAR Hall of Fame unveiled an exhibit entitled "Wrecks! Dramatic Crashes of NASCAR."

Winston Kelley, executive director of the shrine, admitted the timing of the new main display in its Great Hall left him with "a big knot in his stomach," and the Hall of Fame considered if it should delay the opening.

"But when you go back and look at what we're trying to show, it probably sends more of the wrong message (and) gives the perception we're trying to hide from something if it's been embargoed or pulled back," he said.

Kelley said the exhibit never had been pegged to the Talladega race. The twice annual rotating displays are targeted to the Sprint Cup Series' twice annual stops at Charlotte Motor Speedway in May and October. Once an exhibit is green-lit, it takes four to six months to design the exhibits and acquire the artifacts, video and photography, and there are usually a half-dozen concepts in the planning stages with development times that can take more than two years.

"'Wrecks!' had been on the drawing board since before the Hall's 2010 opening and originally had been slated to open last October. When it was pushed back a year, it happened to coincide with the same season that Talladega (which is so infamous for producing calamitous crashes, it has marketed "The Big One" in its ticket promotions) was swapped to the week before Charlotte's race because Kansas Speedway had been pushed back by a repave.

"We didn't want folks to think we were being opportunistic," he said. "(The timing) crossed our mind but considering everything, it still wasn't a reason not to do the exhibit."

Kelley said the Hall consulted NASCAR officials about re-evaluating the "Wrecks!" debut and received "zero" static about proceeding.

"Some exhibits are meant to be celebratory in nature to celebrate the individuals and events we are honoring in NASCAR's history," Kelley said. "Others are documentary and document important and relevant parts of NASCAR history. This one is clearly documentary in nature. Wrecks are part of our sport. Our team agreed this was a story we should tell and fans and guests would be interested in."

The display dovetails with the Hall of Fame's quest to take a "warts and all" approach to NASCAR. Inaugural class inductee Junior Johnson built and installed a moonshine still that is permanently displayed on the second floor of the $200 million shrine as a nod to the outlaw culture that spawned stock-car racing through bootlegger stars such as Johnson.

On the advice of late PR chief Jim Hunter, the Hall also has the voluminous accident report compiled after Dale Earnhardt's death on the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500 - the last NASCAR driver killed in a crash in a national series.

Asked whether the exhibit risked glorifying the sport's darkest moments, Kelley said it's important for the museum to avoid the perception of sensationalism.

"(NASCAR's) only interest has been to make sure we don't glorify or embellish something that doesn't deserve that, whether it's accidents or the moonshine story," he said. "It's just tell the appropriate linkage. It's in telling the entire history of NASCAR and documenting it but not at all glorifying parts of it."

"Wrecks!" features the remains of several mangled vehicles, including spectacular crashes involving Geoffrey Bodine, Mike Harmon, Richard Petty, Phil Parsons and Michael McDowell. The common denominator is that every driver survived, and Bodine, Harmon and Parsons were on hand Friday to detail the crashes.

Brett Bodine, who is focused on safety advances as the director of competition at NASCAR's R&D Center in Concord, N.C., said he liked the exhibit because he felt it kept the focus on the aftermath rather than the accidents themselves. The exhibit highlights the developments made with roll cages, firesuits, fuel cells, window nets and the SAFER barrier.

"This shows us that NASCAR and motor sports are a dangerous sport," Bodine said. "This reminds us of that in a very positive way because it represents bad accidents that basically everybody was OK. It reinforces that safety was in play five years ago, 10 years ago, and it's going to be 10 years from now. We will not stop improving. We're going to have accidents, and NASCAR is doing their best to ensure that we have the safest cars that our drivers can show their talents."

Parsons, now a Speed analyst, said the exhibits could serve as a sobering reminder.

"We're a little bit jaded," he said. "I see a wreck now, and it doesn't even cross my mind that a driver can be hurt, but we can not lose sight of the fact that these guys are going 200 mph, and even though SAFER barriers have revolutionized the outside wall, it still can be a dangerous sport."

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